Conventionally, a conveyor belt apparatus such as that shown, for example, in Patent document 1 (see below) is known that is provided with an endless belt-shaped conveyor belt that transports transport material, and with a wear measuring device that measures the amount of wear of the surface of the conveyor belt upon which the transport material is placed.
In this type of conveyor belt apparatus, the amount of wear of the surface of the conveyor belt is measured at regular intervals. The remaining time until the conveyor belt reaches the end of its usable life is then predicted based on this amount of wear, on the length of time that has elapsed from the point when the conveyor belt, which had not been used up until that point, was first used until the point when the aforementioned amount of wear was measured, and on the amount of wear that exists when the conveyor belt reaches the end of its usable life which has been determined in advance.